This invention relates in general to an aircraft escape slide raft apparatus and more particularly to an inflatable slide raft assembly that can be used both as a slide for land evacuation of passengers and can also be used as a slide raft for water evacuation of passengers.
In the event an aircraft lands under emergency conditions on land or sea as forced landings or "ditched" at sea, escape apparatus must be provided so that the passenger and crew evacuation can be done safely in as quick a time as possible. The present invention is directed to a new and novel slide raft assembly that facilitates its quick deployment and use as either an escape slide on land where there is a considerable height requirement as from an aircraft that has more than one passenger deck or where such type of aircraft is ditched in water. In the last condition of use where the slide raft assembly is deployed from the upper deck, the slide raft cannot be loaded over its entire length because a portion of it is so high off the water and must be used as a slide which means a portion of its length cannot be used as raft capacity. This condition would result in the need to carry supplemental rafts to make up for the difference in capacity. The present invention solves this problem in this condition of deployment by providing an integral boarding slide that permits release of the entire slide raft for use as a raft and of itself permits the rapid evacuation from the airplane onto the entire length of the raft.